Super Easy Sugar-free Cranberry Sauce

This sugar-free cranberry sauce is the perfect addition to your low-carb Holiday dinner. Made with fresh cranberries and natural sweeteners, this healthy whole berry cranberry sauce takes only minutes to make and is so delicious!

You can make this on the stove, in the crockpot, or in and Instant Pot: any pot goes!

Growing up, we only had canned cranberry sauce during the Holidays. I loved it, but since going low carb, all that sugar just doesn't work for us anymore.

Thankfully, it's a BREEZE to make your own sugar-free cranberry sauce and it tastes SO much better than canned. Once you've made your own keto cranberry sauce, you'll never go back!

I recommend making an extra batch or two so you can have it around for leftovers later. And why not use some of this low-carb cranberry sauce as a spread year round? It's sooo good!

Are Cranberries Keto?

Plain cranberries are not sweet. If you've ever tried them, you know why they're totally fine for the keto diet.

How Much Sugar Is In Canned Cranberry Sauce?

It's shocking for sure, but in just ONE 1/2 inch slice of canned cranberry sauce, there are 21.6 grams of sugar! (source)

That's why I made this recipe. Because 21.6 grams is craziness.

How to Make Cranberry Sauce Without Sugar

This sugar-free cranberry sauce recipe is made with stevia and another low-carb sweetener. You can use whatever sweeteners you like, but if you want to keep it low-carb, you should choose from low-carb sweeteners.

Making low-carb cranberry sauce is just as easy as making cranberry sauce from scratch. Just simmer the ingredients and stir in some vanilla at the end.

The 2 differences are the sweetener and orange flavor ingredients.

Sweetener

Confectioner’s-style powdered sweetener is best for this recipe since it blends well into the sauce and keeps longer without crystallizing.

This recipe is actually really flexible as far as sweeteners go, so feel free to use whatever you have on hand. Fresh cranberries have a small amount of natural sugar, but it's very little.

I don't recommend using artificial sweeteners like Splenda (sucralose), Nutrasweet, saccharin, etcetera since they are completely artificial. I prefer using stevia, monk fruit extract, erythritol, allulose, xylitol, and the like.

Orange Flavor

Traditional cranberry sauce is made with orange juice instead of water. By swapping in a low carb sweetener, plus water and orange zest for the juice, you get that delicious citrus flavor without all of the carbs.

You can even add more zest, or even try orange extract instead of the zest.

Storage

You should be able to store this low-sugar cranberry sauce at least a week in the fridge, but again, you'll want to use a powdered sweetener if storing it because granulated sweeteners might result in a grainy result when stored.

Ingredients

• Fresh cranberries
• Water
• Powdered low-carb sweetener
• Stevia extract
• Orange zest
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients, except vanilla, in a saucepan. Stir to combine.
2. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often.
3. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, until the cranberries burst and the sauce has thickened (about 15 minutes.)
4. Add vanilla extract, and stir to combine.
5. Let cool for at least 30 minutes.
6. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
7. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if desired, and serve.

Recipe Notes

Sweetener: Be sure to use a powdered sweetener to prevent your sauce from crystallizing. Alternatively, you can use allulose: either granulated or powdered. Xylitol isn't as low-carb, but it will not crystallize.

Money Saving Tip: Buy cranberries on sale right after the holiday and store them in the fridge or freezer. They're great for this recipe, for this Homemade Cranberry Juice, this Cranberry Smoothie Bowl, and these Healthy Sugared Cranberries, too!

Special Diet Options

• Paleo: For a paleo cranberry sauce, use stevia, coconut sugar, honey, or even maple syrup. Honey and maple syrup are sweeter, however, so note the information in this post on sweeteners about substituting those. For stevia, this post on how to use stevia can help.
• AIP: Use coconut sugar, honey, or maple syrup.

More Healthy & Low-carb Holiday Recipes

• Green Bean Casserole – a healthified version of a traditional side
• Pumpkin Custard – delicious pumpkin pie flavor in an easy custard form
• Easy Pat in the Pan Pie Crust – our favorite pie crust!
• Moroccan Carrots – the perfect make-ahead side
• Oven Roasted Carrots – easy and delicious!
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon – perfectly caramelized!
• Brussels Sprouts Salad – as beautiful as it is delicious!

So hope you enjoy this as much as we do!
I'd love to hear what you think!